The importance of being earnest, a trivial comedy for serious people, is a play by Oscar Wilde. It is a satire on societal norms. The play is full of witty statements and sarcasm in Victorian ways. The author deals the serious institution like marriage with great trivial.
Following are some of the humorous statements by Oscar Wilde in “The Importance of Being Earnest”
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“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”
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“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
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“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does, and that is his.”
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“To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”
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“The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.”
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“If I am occasionally a little over-dressed, I make up for it by being always immensely over-educated.”
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“I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.”
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“I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them.”
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“In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.”
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“I never change, except in my affections.”
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“I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays.”
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“Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that.”
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“To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up.”
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“I could deny it if I liked it. I could deny anything if I liked it.”
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“Oh! I don’t think I would like to catch a sensible man. I shouldn’t know what to talk to him about.”
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“Indeed, no woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.”
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“I don’t like novels that end happily. They depress me so much”
